In 2022, the Mets and Yankees offered tantalizing glimpses of a possible second Subway World Series with two teams potentially more dominant than the 2000 editions meeting in a competitive five-game series.
This occurred as both spent most of the season in first place, with the Yankees maintaining a mostly dominant lead until some problems in August.Those dreams faded with disappointing postseason performances when the Mets failed to get past the Padres in the new wild-card series after blowing up the division in the final weekend and when the Yankees were swept out of the ALCS by the Astros after having passed the The guards screamed. in a five-game divisional series. When Aaron Judge made it to the finals of the baseball season in New York, it seemed just a moment in both teams’ return to some semblance of glory and that 2023 would bring better results. Instead, 2023 would go down as one of the most disappointing seasons in New York baseball history, if not the most disappointing. For various reasons, neither team did anything special.The Mets never reached .500 again after June 4, a month and a half later their management shifted toward trading veteran talent, including Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, for more highly regarded talent because they were willing to give up Texas and Houston in the process to help cover the costs of their respective payrolls. The Mets finished with 75 wins, marking their 11th losing record in 15 seasons since leaving Shea Stadium and their second in three years under owner Steve Cohen.Meanwhile, the Yankees were little better, narrowly avoiding their first losing season since 1992 with a victory in their 161st game. Their last losing season was so long ago, a time when Derek Jeter was a first-year pro, Buck Showalter was the first manager, the Yankees had four straight losing seasons.There are plenty of reasons why both teams find themselves facing real dog days in August. One of the reasons is the lack of performance on both sides.For the Yankees, one of the biggest offenders is Giancarlo Stanton, who ended up hitting .191 in 101 games after hitting .211 in 110 games in 2022. Stanton also missed two months with a hamstring injury -hamstrings and was, in his opinion, hard on himself due to his long injury history and having the worst season of his 14-year career with 1,535 regular season games. One of the Mets’ biggest offenders was Jeff McNeil. He hit .303 in his final 52 games and finished the year with a respectable .270 mark, a year after hitting .326 to win the batting title, and he was considered a model by which good years alternated with inconsistent seasons. Other underachievers on both teams include DJ LeMahieu, who hasn’t even come close to hitting .300 since winning the batting title during the 60-game 2020 season. Since LeMahieu signed a six-year contract in January 2021, his averages are .268, .261 and 2.43, respectively. Last year he hit a career-worst .243 and needed a strong August to finish above .240. While he’s still recovering from the toe injury that kept him out of the playoffs and may have been unlucky, it’s fair to wonder if he’s on a trajectory descending as he begins his season at 36 years old. Injuries also derailed the Yankees. In addition to Stanton’s hamstring injuries, Anthony Rizzo did not play after August 1 due to a concussion. The concussion was suffered during a pickoff play with Fernando Tatis Jr. on May 28 and was diagnosed just two months later, shortly after Rizzo’s 4-for-4 game against Kansas City, in the midst of the worst slump of his career .
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